Let’s hear three chairs to the beers

Beer lovers and creatives have taken on the challenge to create a chair out of a beer can.

More than 50 people from across the motu took up the task of turning the drinking vessels into diminutive versions of the furniture for the inaugural Beer Chair Competition, with a chance to crack open their wallets for a swig of prize money.

Chair of the Beer Chair contest, Lee Woodman, who owns an art studio on Hardy St, says the idea for the local competition poured in from a chinwag with Nelson creative Fleur Stewart.

“She said, ‘how about we come up with something made out of a beer can, something that’s readily available, a kind of material that most people could probably make something out of, and how about we make it a chair’,” he says.

“Then we thought about ways that we could have it restricted in size, so we thought we’d use the [440ml] can itself as the size dimension and further restrict the use of the materials to one can. Nelson also being a haven for the craft beer movement, we thought it might appeal to beer drinkers.”

Lee says glue and solder could be used as fixing agents and the chair’s diameter had to be 66mm with a height of 150mm.

He says the 51 entries were received by 1 March and 43 chair makers were notified they had brewed success to make the finals on 7 March.

“They ranged from a beginner level of craft through to a very high level, and there were some humorous works in there as well,” he says.

“I met lots of people on the street that said that they were entering, one person had made up to 15 chairs… and then there were reports that children had got together in groups and were making them.”

Lee says he, Fleur and The Free House co-owner Eelco Boswijk, judged, with the winner and runner-up announced on 27 March.

Nelson architect William Samuels took home the top gong with his double layered Buckminster Chair devised from a Sawmill non-alcoholic beer can.

William says ten cans of different designs were trialled.

“I have probably purchased more beers for this competition than I have consumed in the last year,” he says.

“This is quite different from anything I’ve done before, it was a fairly iterative process with around eight different prototypes, starting with a complete failure and then suddenly ending up with the version that we’ve got here. Being able to model it and draw in architectural software and design it before cutting it out, that definitely helped.”

William says he was “chuffed” with the win and the $3000 prize served alongside.

“It was nice to see such a good quality and number of entries… my biggest takeaway is I think this is a really amazing competition, you don’t have to be an artist or a professional to be able to do it.”

Lee says the first and second place crafts were awarded for being “beautifully made” and “exquisite in the model making”.

Finalists will be displayed on the window sill at Lee Woodman Studios until 9 April.